Six Miles Deep

Lord Dorchester’s Proclamation of 1789

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At the Council Chamber at Quebec, Monday 9th . November 1789.

Present, His Excellency the Right Honble. LORD DORCHESTER.
The Honble. WILLIAM SMITH, Efquire,
Chief Juftice. HUGH FINLAY, )
GEORGE POWNALL, )
THOS. DUNN, )
HENRY CALDWELL )
EDWD. HARRISON, )
WILLIAM GRANT, )
JOHN COLLINS, )
FRANCOIS BABY, )
Efquires. ADAM MABANE, )
CHARLES DE LANAUDIERE, )
J.G.C. DELERY, )
LE CTE. DUPRE’, )

His Lordship intimated to the Council, that it remained a Question, upon the late Regulation for the Disposition of the Waste Lands of the Crown, whether the Boards, constituted for that Purpose, were authorized to make Locations to the Sons of Loyalists, on their coming of full Age and that it was his with to put a Mark of Honour upon families who had adhered to the Unity of Empire, and joined the Royal Standard in America before the Treaty of Separation in the year 1783. The Council concurring with His Lordship, it is accordingly ORDERED, That the several Land Boards take Course for preferring a Registry of the Names of all Persons, falling under the aforementioned, to the End of their Posterity may be discriminated, from future Settlers, in the Parish Registers and Rolls of the Militia, of their respective Districts, and other Public Remembrancers (sic) of the Province, as proper Objects, by their preserving in the Fidelity and Conduct, so honourable to their Ancestors, for distinguished Benefits and Privileges. And it is also Ordered, that the said Land Boards may, in every such Case, provide not only for the Sons of those Localists, as they arrive to Full Age, but for their Daughters also, of that Age, or on their marriage, assigning to each a Lot of Two Hundred Acres, more or less, provided nevertheless that they respectively comply with the general Regulations and that it shall satisfactorily appear, the there has been no Default in the due Cultivation and Improvements of the Lands already assigned to the Head of the Family, of which they are Members.

Williams C.C

Accompanying the resolution to London to be presented to the king, was attached a “Form of militia roll for the western districts to discriminate the families before mentioned” which included the following…. “N.B. Those Loyalists who have adhered to the unity of the Empire, and joined the Royal Standard before the Treaty of Separation in the year 1783, and all their children and their descendants by either sex, are to be distinguished by the following capitals, affixed to their names: U.E. alluding to their great principle the unity of the Empire.”

411 words

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About Benjamin Doolittle U.E.

listen to BLOODLINE

“Bloodline” follows the Haldimand Proclamation from its original promise to the present fight to have it honoured. The track moves through Crown grants, broken commitments, and the legal and political road back to enforcement, asking listeners to hear the Proclamation not as a relic of the past, but as a living obligation that still binds the Crown to the Mohawk Nation of Grand River.

Artist: One Way Current
Writer: Benjamin Doolittle UE
Producer: One Way Current
Publisher: Corn Press Publications
Affiliation: Six Miles Deep / Mohawk Nation of Grand River

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